Doctoral Degrees (General Internal Medicine)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (General Internal Medicine) by Author "Rossouw, Paul Emile"
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- ItemA longitudinal study of the stability of the dentition following orthodontic treatment(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1992) Rossouw, Paul Emile; Preston, C. B.; Nortje, C. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Dentistry.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The maintenance of dental alignment following orthodontic treatment has been, and continues to be, a challenge for the orthodontist (McReynolds and Little, 1991). Orthodontists should endeavour to establish normal occlusions and function to the end that physiologic balance and retentive stability may be achieved (Goldstein, 1953). Many philosophies and theories have been formulated in response to this challenge, but few have successfully withstood the test of rigorous post-orthodontic evaluation. The present study comprises longitudinal assessments of dentofacial changes which occurred in South African Caucasian subjects during their orthodontic treatment as well as a mean of 7 years following active treatnent. The sample consists of 88 Caucasian subjects; 33 males and 55 female sUbjects who have undergone conventional edgewise orthodontic treatment (Lindquist; 1985). The treatment includes extraction (56%) and nonextraction (44%) therapy. Due to the intricate structure of the craniofacial complex, it is deemed important to discuss the major components of this complex separately and then to compare the variables describing the area with post-orthodontic lower incisor crowding. Lower incisor crowding or irregularity, most often referred to as relapse when occurring in the post-orthodontic dentition, is a phenom~non that is clinically visible and easily assessed using the Little Irregularity Index (Little, 1975). A variety of orthodontic study cast and cephalometric variables represent the changes which occur at the three time intervals selected for this study, namely pre-treatment (T1), post-treatment (T2) and following active treatment (T3). statistical analysis of th~ data was undertaken by the Institute for Biostatistics of the Medical Research Council, Tygerberg, RSA utilising the SAS (1985). The significance level of the results of this study is set at p = 0.05. x No previous study has documented the evaluated and described the various craniofacial skeleton in this format. literature parts or has of the The thesis is divided into thirteen chapters.